Dalek

views updated May 14 2018

Dalek in science fiction, a member of a race of hostile alien machine-organisms which appeared in the BBC television serial Dr Who from 1963; they are characterized by their staccato mechanical utterance, and their catch-phrase, ‘Exterminate! Exterminate!’

The name is an invented word, coined by the author Terry Nation after a volume of an encyclopedia covering the alphabetical sequence dallek.